Business is always changing. Your company will go through various stages of the business lifecycle. What you focus on today will change and require different approaches to be successful.

Stage 1 – Seed and development

The beginning of the business idea. Get advice from as many sources as possible. Review profitability, the market, competitors and the business structure. A good business plan is vital for success.

Stage 2 – Start up

Make your business a legal entity. Adjust to your customers’ needs and wants. Establish a customer base and concentrate on marketing and profitability. Reviewing the business plan, budgets and cashflows is vital.

Stage 3 – Growth and establishment

Fine tune your business model, sales model, marketing model and operations model. While managing a good team concentrate on sales and marketing. Consider the need for external consulting advice on the business development.

Stage 4 – Expansion

The business has a steady income and flow of customers and the business feels like routine. If deciding to expand your offerings or move into a new market, you must consider the risks; competition, resources required, time required, the effects on current customers and the financing.

Stage 5 – Maturity and/or exit

Your business could still be growing and the current option is to decide to take a step back towards the expansion stage or to think of a possible exit strategy. Is the business financially able to cover an unsuccessful attempt at expansion? Have you planned your exit strategy?

Not all businesses experience every stage of the lifecycle and some experience them in a different order. Every stage of the business lifecycle brings new or re-occurring challenges. Solutions that may have worked for one stage may not work in another stage, which is why you should always adjust and review your business plan and operations.

If you need any help, our friendly team of experts can be your partner through each stage of the business lifecycle. Please contact Lisa Byrne, Audit Manager at Cooney Carey, on 01 677 9000 or by email: lbyrne@cooneycarey.ie

If this article helped you, please share it with other businesses.

Posted on October 2, 2017 by Lisa Byrne

Digital marketing has become a vital tool for businesses in today’s online environment. What type and when you use it is important to the success of any digital marketing strategy.

Do you, or someone on your team have responsibility for this area of your business? Are you

Considering your SEO (search engine optimisation) strategy

Active on social media platforms, if so, which ones

Making the most of the opportunities that digital marketing can provide

These are all questions that you company need to ask.

Having undertaking several online webinars through our international group Russell Bedford International and attended numerous presentations, most recently a presentation on content marketing for professional services.

Over a series of blogs, we will try to highlight the main tips that we took away from these in the hope that they may assist your business as well.

If you found this article interesting, please share it with other businesses.

Posted on May 9, 2017 by Cooney Carey

Meetings can be either a useful medium of communication, where relationships and understandings can be strengthened or a drag on time and costs. The following tips may be helpful in ensuring meetings remain relevant and useful.

Agenda

Break the meeting into relevant sections and give a time limit to each section, a time allocation should include time for agreement of action points.

Open Discussion

It is worthwhile to give a time slot for open discussion at the end. It is important that everyone at the meeting is aware of this, so they avoid interrupting other timeslots to get any of their own personal agenda across.

Two separate types of the agenda

The person leading the meeting should have a detailed agenda containing all information on what will be discussed at the meeting. A brief bullet point agenda should be given to the other meeting participants. If the other participants are given the full detailed agenda, they may be focused more on reading ahead than engaging in the meeting.

Review of meeting

The end of the meeting should include a review of the items discussed and the action points required to be taken.

Retain documentation

All the minutes of the meeting should retained to support the conclusions and decisions made at the meeting

Worthwhile effort

If you feel it is not worthwhile putting in the effort to document the agenda, discussions, conclusions and decisions of a meeting, you should maybe consider – is the meeting required in the first place.

What questions do you have?

We are happy to help. Please post your comment below or contact our friendly and knowledgeable team on 01 677 9000 or email: info@cooneycarey.ie